"chmod u+w config.txt" results in "Operation not permitted."

Question

I am trying to use chmod to allow me to change config.txt. I am using NOOBS on the Raspberry Pi Zero.

chmod u+w config.txt

results in "Operation not permitted."

Answer 1

You probably need to use sudo:

sudo chmod a+w config.txt

Explanation: You don't say much about the file (who owns it?) or which user you're running the command as, but I guess you're probably logged in as a normal user and the file is owned by someone else (root?). Hence you don't have permission to change the permissions.

Using sudo runs the command as the root user, who has permission to do anything.

Answer 2

definitely sudo to fix the permissions issue.

You could also use: sudo chmod 600 config.txt (assuming you are the only user who needs to read/write.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod for more details.